Sunday, December 13, 2015

Fr. Wilson’s Weekly Address

Dear Parishioners,

Can you believe that Christmas is less than two weeks from now? Yikes! Hopefully you’ve found a little time to “prepare the way of the Lord.” Please don’t let Christmas arrive without a little extra time spent with Jesus (our Church is open from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM) and a good Confession (Wednesdays from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM and Saturdays from 3:00 PM to 3:45 PM). Please stop in and make room in your heart for all the new graces God wants to pour into you this Christmas.

Please note that our Christmas Mass schedule this year is as follows: Thursday, December 24th (Vigil Mass) at 4:00 PM and Friday, December 25th at 12 Midnight, 9:00 AM and 10:30 AM. There will be no 5:00 PM Mass on Christmas Day.

As you’re looking over the Christmas Schedule, please consider joining us for Midnight Mass this year. There is nothing like it! Beginning at 11:30 PM, our choir will give a concert of sacred music. At the stroke of midnight, we will celebrate the first Mass of Christmas Day. We will process through the church carrying the Baby Jesus and solemnly lay Him in the manger. After Holy Communion, the lights will be lowered and we will sing “Silent Night, Holy Night.” It’s so peaceful! If you have never been, please join us (I know it’s late, but it’s once a year—and truly beautiful)! If you’ve been before, come again! Midnight Mass touches your heart in a new way every time!

Have you noticed the new altar cloths for Advent and the Immaculate Conception? There will also be new altar cloths for Christmas as well. If these altar cloths were made by a religious goods supplier, they would’ve cost us thousands of dollars. But they are the work of two very generous parishioners, Mrs. Katie Bolster and Mrs. Gloria Ferri. The parish purchased the fabric (for a very reasonable price) and they did all the sewing. Amazing!! My deepest thanks to Katie and Gloria for such a beautiful gift to our parish!

Our Annual Collection is coming along very well! We’re just shy of our goal of $60,000—but I’m sure we’ll make it very soon. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far.

Our Calendar Club is off to a good start—but we could use more members! Our Calendar Club is an important fundraiser for our parish—and there are daily opportunities to win a prize! Please consider a membership—and perhaps one or two more as stocking stuffers for family and/or friends!

God bless you in the week ahead—and may these final days of Advent be prayerful and blessed.

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church    237 Garden Hills Drive, Cranston, RI 02920    Phone: 401.942.1854    Fax: 401.942.2897
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